


2014 or The year Diego lost his mind

by Blasphemy_Turtle



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Diego also goes undercover, Drug Abuse, F/M, Incest smh?, Istanbul, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, M/M, Police corruption
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-06
Packaged: 2019-11-13 02:29:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18023060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blasphemy_Turtle/pseuds/Blasphemy_Turtle
Summary: Diego doesn't really want to see any of his siblings until Allison's next wedding (Because who are we kidding, there will be one).In January 2014, Klaus somehow comes into his life and that's a big problem, for his job, for his reputation and especially for his long term plan to get back with Eudora.Oh, and there is also this book coming out in February that is revealing every single thing about him to the world.It is safe to say that 2014 is a shitty year. Around September, however, it kinda takes a turn.





	2014 or The year Diego lost his mind

**Author's Note:**

> Wow so  
> This
> 
> I didn't to this whole fanfic thing for the last 10 years or so, but Umbrella Academy is so fucking gold and the fandom is so small that I need to help with that.
> 
> I know it's shit. It's also unbeta'd. If anyone wants to help me with that, you are more than welcome. I'll give you a beer and a donut and an amazing copy of a video of me dancing to Istanbul. You can also just send me a pm in case you wanna talk to somebody about TUA, because literally don't know anyone on here yet (But I've been lurking all your works for a long time and you are amazing <3)
> 
> Also this is just the prologue and the rest will be longer. Maybe.

_The boss wants to see you_.

Somehow those words sound like the police is actually a mafia mob. And he is just a goon, who accidentally beat up the wrong person. Or fucked the Don’s daughter.

Well, the second one is not too far from the truth. Diego smiles slightly at the thought as he enters the office.

“You called for me, Captain Patch?”

The Captain is sitting behind a large wooden desk, long legs with crocodile leather shoes crossed and a slightly balding, greying head. What is more surprising is the other person in the room, an older man in a brown suit and a black briefcase. The man looks out of the windows, but even from a side glance Diego knows something is off with this guy. Maybe FBI. Maybe he was being recruited by the FBI. That would be nicer than the more realistic reason he was called here.

Diego is around 90% sure that he is being fired.

He already has a bunch of marks on his file, his grades are shit and, well, he broke up with Eudora. Or she with him. Not like it mattered.  
He really wondered whether he was, deep inside, actually sabotaging his life in some weird masochistic way.

“Do you know who that is?” Patch gesticulates towards a file lying on his table, and Diego takes a step forward, a bad feeling in his belly foreshadowing him what he might see any second.

His idea turns out to be right:

It is a picture of him, obviously taken by a surveillance camera in a shitty convenience store. He has his mask on, otherwise it is pretty blurry, and his fist is meeting with some random teen’s face.

Oops.

He looks the Captain in the eye and tries not to blink while his brain somehow decides to play _Pina Colada_ in the background and otherwise really leaves him alone here.

“I don’t have the slightest idea. But if this is being investigated, I would gladly help.”

Patch creases his eyebrows to the point where they almost meet. He is also sweating and his eyes burn into him. He looks furious, while slowly getting up from his chair. Even though age has not been kind to his waist size, it is indimidating, even to Diego who had been tied to a chair watching countless gore videos as a child.

 _No, no, no, don’t put your thoughts in that direction_. Diego can feel the familiar lump form in his throat… hey, he almost forgot how that felt. _Great time to make jokes._

“We don’t condone _viligilantism_ at this academy, Hargreeves. Not in the slightest bit. This –“ Patch points at the paper, and also spits a little bit on it “-is not a reason to fire you. This is a reason to jail you. And do you know how they treat cops in prison?!”

“I am not a cop.”

“No, you’re not! And you will never –“

The man at the window coughs slightly, and in an instant, Patch looks like he has lost all air. He still looks angry though, like someone painted angry eyes on a slowly deflating balloon, and seemingly cannot decide between angrily looking at Diego or at the stranger’s back. Finally, he decides to light a cigarette and falls back into his chair.

Diego breathes out air that he hadn’t felt he was holding.

“Mr. Hargreeves. If it were for me, you would never set a foot into this academy again. Sadly, you seem to have some guardian angel in the higher ranks. I also understand that you have some family issues currently.” Diego raises both eyebrows. _Family issues?_ Is he talking about Eudora? She hardly counts as family, even though this topic has come up a few times. “Let this be your last warning, and take this as the gift it is. And leave this ridiculous mask at home. Dismissed.”

Diego turns around, frowning. He leaves the room with a dry mouth and doesn’t even listen to the conversation of the two men before the door falls shut.

_Family issues?_

And then it dawns on him. Like a robot, he goes to the wall telephone and types the number in.

It rings once, twice, before he hears an “Hello?”

“Eudora-“ Diego starts. They actually didn’t talk since then and he half expects her to put down the phone. She doesn’t. He breathes in and out and struggles a few seconds before he starts.

“It’s Diego. No – don’t – don’t put down the phone please. I just… I had this strange discussion with your father, and I – “ Yeah this works great “Sorry to ask like this – But are you pregnant?”

The silence on the other side is deafening. When she starts talking, she sounds bemused and the biggest stone ever drops from Diego’s chest.

“No. No, I am not pregnant. Don’t worry, I would have told you.”

He doesn’t say anything.

“I mean…” She sounds more reluctant now. “We did part in a way where we can still talk to each other and work with each other, didn’t we?”

He says yes, they did, and then the line is dead. Diego stares at the telephone a few more seconds, still feeling the adrenalin rush and too many feelings and then he – finally – thinks about calling father.

A hand lands on his shoulder and Diego _really_ has to fight the first instinct to drag his knives out of his pocket and slam them into the aggressor’s throat. Instead, he hangs in the phone and turns around, because who would assault him in a police building?

It is the man from before, and from close up he looks even more eerie. He has a bunch of scars around his face and looks like some villain from a 50s movie.

“Cadet, I believe you should look for your brother.” Is everything he says, before he walks down the hallway into the men’s toilet. Diego is dumbfounded, then slowly picks up the phone before he calls Luther, while everything in him is revolting against the notion of having to talk to his brother.

Still, he puts up a smile and, as cheerfully as possible, says “Number One!” when the phone is picked up. There might be a hint of irony somewhere in there. He hopes, the gorilla intelligence in Luther’s brain is somehow smart enough to catch that.

“Diego.” The answer is a million times less excited. “What do you want?”

“I…” Well what did he want? Ask if Luther was okay? He knew, the answer he wanted and the answer he should want were not the same. “I wanted to know if you got over what must have been a terrible hangover from the wedding.”

Luther had been _smashed._ Allison had to rumor him to sleep before it became awkward, and Diego had had the undignifying task to carry him upstairs into the hotel room while being swarmed by the “journalists” Allison had allowed to document her wedding. _Does your brother have an alcohol problem? – Well, this one not._

There is a few seconds of silence on the line. Then “That was half a year ago.”

The rest of the talk is as boring as the first half. Diego finds out that Luther literally didn’t do anything interesting in the past year and still doesn’t have a life. He hears more about his dad than he ever wanted to, and apparently mom took up painting, and Luther doesn’t have any big missions coming up. Well, it would have been too easy if it was Luther.

He sighs heavily while putting down the phone.  
Diego doesn’t have any phone number that could reach Klaus, so instead he occupies the desk that he has to share with a dozen other recruits and uses the mighty power of technology to find out what his other brother has been up to. It doesn’t prove too hard.


End file.
